With campaign event data from across the country, Eventbrite illustrates trends in fundraising and community-building

San Francisco, Calif. – September 5, 2012 – Eventbrite has released data culled from the more than 7,000 campaign events managed on its ticketing and fundraising platform in 2012. Candidates from both parties—at all levels of local, state, and national office—acknowledge that events are a powerful way to build a following, and to raise money to support their campaigns. Eventbrite has sought to examine how campaigns are building and engaging communities by leveraging easy-to-use tools for event creation, data collection, donation processing, and entry management.

Both parties active with events

Across all political events on Eventbrite in 2012, 29% have been Democratic events, and 71% have been Republican events. Because Eventbrite is a self-service platform, even candidates who have never before run for office—candidates who are participating in local government for the first time—can start managing campaign events and collecting donations. On average, across the United States, a Democratic event gathers 42 supporters, and a Republican event gathers 68 supporters.

Eventbrite’s CEO and Co-Founder, Kevin Hartz, explains, “We’ve seen tremendous appetite for a more sophisticated toolset for political events—one that makes it easy to create event pages quickly, spread the word about candidate appearances, and help campaigns with meaningful civic engagement. We expect activity on both sides of the aisle—from campaign rallies to luncheons—to pick up as we get closer and closer to Election Day.”

Swing States focus on community

In the key swing states (Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin), 63% of Democratic events and 77% of Republican events have been free, community-building events. This is an important reminder that in battleground states, candidates are more focused on using Eventbrite to gather supporters together around issues they are passionate about—as opposed to raising money.

Also in the swing states, there is a wide gap in the average ticket price for fundraising events. The average ticket price for a Democratic fundraising event is $115.53, while the average ticket price for a Republican fundraising event is $31.50.

In this election season, more than ever before, candidates are leveraging online technologies to rally their supporters online and offline. As Eventbrite’s Democratic Lead, David Glasgow, explains, "With Eventbrite, campaign organizations like Tech for Obama are able to generate online enthusiasm for their events with integrated social sharing tools that make it easy for supporters to post information to various social networks. And then candidates can bring that excitement offline to events, from massive rallies to intimate fundraising dinners."

Chad Barth, Eventbrite’s Republican Lead, highlights, "Campaigns like Romney for President, are gathering essential supporter information so they can build their databases, and continue to connect with voters as we approach November."

For more information on how Eventbrite is helping political campaigns reach and connect with their communities, visit BritePolitics at http://eventbrite.com/politics.

About Eventbrite:

Eventbrite enables people all over the world to plan, promote, and sell out any event and has processed over $1 Billion in gross ticket sales. Eventbrite makes it easy for everyone to discover events, and to share the events they are attending with the people they know. In this way, Eventbrite brings communities together by encouraging people to connect through live experiences. Eventbrite's investors include Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, and Tenaya Capital. Learn more at www.eventbrite.com.